The Laboratories of Democracy: US state and local politics

[Satchmo Distel]

Her constituency is apparently 72% Latino and my inference is she thinks she can brazen it out. However, her presence is going to be so poisonous to cross-cultural relations that you would expect her to have to go in order that the process of repair can begin. The truly worrying question is the extent to which she was just saying out loud what the bulk of her support truly thinks (which in turn is why she believes they'll back her).

African-Americans who were alienated from a Latino-led party will now have even more reason to distrust it.

[delicatemoth]

https://twitter.com/zinovievletter/status/1573271554049310726?s=20&t=yOxdgBSozSKpPI95genVOg

Catching up with this thread is some way to find out that Juliet Jacques has deleted her account.

The Oregon governor campaign is quite odd. It's a three way race between the Democrat Tina Kotek, Republican Christine Drazan and former Democrat independent candidate Betsy Johnson. Kotek looks like a reasonably decent Dem, Johnson looks like a very rightwing Dem and could play a nasty spoiler role.

[Satchmo Distel]

Oregon has a lot of LGBTQ minorities (indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, Latinx etc) who would be vulnerable if it goes in a Florida direction, as they'd get the full combo of racism, misogyny, homophobia and transphobia. Fingers crossed.

[San Bernardhinault]

Yes, the little polling I’ve seen from Oregon makes me fear that the Republican is going to win because the Democrat vote is going to split. And a Republican governor in Oregon is a horrible idea, pandering to Oregon’s very strong community of redneck fascists who live outside the Willamette Valley.

[Incandenza]

Her constituency is apparently 72% Latino and my inference is she thinks she can brazen it out. However, her presence is going to be so poisonous to cross-cultural relations that you would expect her to have to go in order that the process of repair can begin. The truly worrying question is the extent to which she was just saying out loud what the bulk of her support truly thinks (which in turn is why she believes they'll back her).

African-Americans who were alienated from a Latino-led party will now have even more reason to distrust it.

It's also extremely difficult to vote an incumbent council member out of their seat. Martinez represents an unglamorous part of town and I would doubt that it would attract any well-funded ambitious challenger, and it would be tough for an upstart to build a lot of support out there.

[Incandenza]

Martinez is taking a leave of absence.

The first council meeting since the tape got attention is about to start.

https://twitter.com/JonnyPeltz/status/1579873713956061191

[Etienne]

She's walked.

[ursus arctos]

Good piece from Kang

https://twitter.com/jaycaspiankang/status/1581000478589997058?s=61&t=2wajCYM3KXC9t8kIi6q4hA

[Tactical Genius]

So in the light of the LA scandal, I would like to hear the opinions of certain posters with regards to Intersectionality, Minority coalition, People of Colour, Black and Brown etc.

Or you can just say I was right all along............

[Satchmo Distel]

Read the Kang article in the post above yours. There are progressive coalitions and middle-class identity ones. These LA Latinos were racist towards other Latinos (darker, working class, from Oaxaca) as well as blacks, just as someone like Kamala Harris is racist towards darker, poorer blacks.

[Tactical Genius]

Read the Kang article in the post above yours. There are progressive coalitions and middle-class identity ones. These LA Latinos were racist towards other Latinos (darker, working class, from Oaxaca) as well as blacks, just as someone like Kamala Harris is racist towards darker, poorer blacks.

I am aware of that. I am also aware that the real outrage in the Latino community was not her anti-black sentiments, but her anti-darker skinned Latino comments.

This has little do do with progressive or class. Would you like to bet the so called "darker skinned" Latinos have different views about black people than these three politicians?

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/j_hancock/status/1582727059461242880?s=61&t=hGMOyw9u0LFSW2FCko104Q

[Snake Plissken]

https://twitter.com/Phil_Lewis_/status/1582765911500414976

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/anaceballos_/status/1583547264462913536?s=20&t=lVd97KZA9prNHKq9cO_llA

[San Bernardhinault]

Hahaha! He actually paid an undocumented migrant in order to make his daft stunt work? What a daft stunt he is.

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/ronbrownstein/status/1583644182932967424?s=61&t=QxjgaTAZzOK9y96UM44IWQ

[San Bernardhinault]

Coming up on the election here and I'm about to fill in my postal ballot.

I'm obviously going to vote straight-ticket Democrat. Not that it makes much difference here, but it's now even more obvious as the Massachusetts Republican Party has gone full-bore Trumpy. Up until even two years ago it was part of a north-eastern hold-out of more old school Republicans. Not acceptable to OTF but not completely outside of the mainstream of the last 100 years of US politics. Charlie Baker in Massachusetts, Larry Hogan in Maryland, Phil Scott in Vermont and (to an extent) Chris Sununu in New Hampshire were all old school Republicans who were governors of north eastern states. No longer. There's not going to be much split-ticket voting here, nor will Massachusetts elect another Republican for a while unless they revert to concealing their racism a little better.

Instead, really the only votes of note (as usual) are the local ballot questions. I'm pretty sure I'm a yes on all 4.

- State income tax of an extra 4% on earnings over $1m in a year

- Regulate dental insurance like health insurance, requiring at least a certain percentage to go to treatments rather than administrative costs (dental insurance is an even worse scam than health insurance in the US)

- Allow undocumented migrants to get driving licenses

- And, most parochially, allow chains to have more than 9 liquor licenses. It's one of those utterly baffling Massachusetts laws that claims to protect small mom-and-pop booze shops, but feels like a puritanical hangover which means that a bunch of supermarkets can't sell wine or beer. This would be a clear yes, except that someone has put a rider in the small print that means you will not be able to self-check booze at quick-service tills. Which is trivial, but I don't want to be voting for something that's thrown in the small print, and then in a few years someone will claim that there was popular demand for it.

[DCI Harry Batt]

I wonder if I'd do much voting if I lived there. On the initiatives yeah, I guess. But for offices?

[San Bernardhinault]

If I was guessing I'd think you'd vote in some primaries, rarely vote in general elections, and - as you say - vote for the initiatives/direct democracy stuff.

[DCI Harry Batt]

Yeah that sounds pretty likely.

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/patdennis/status/1585066053230809090?s=61&t=NDJDTXdkBCL6aE-Mzt_64Q

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/chrislhayes/status/1585463268197502978?s=61&t=IGBnKD5sjGQpdWpYBQEMtA

[Hot Pepsi]

In better news for a state.

https://www.lamag.com/culturefiles/c...erful-economy/

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/theplumlinegs/status/1587502684269076482?s=61&t=Td5QIV1BRw_Tc0fG4S39Rw

[Nefertiti2]

https://twitter.com/justinbaragona/status/1587567405055807490?s=20&t=vsoWHfMKuZ1PtEX-OSwm_A